


Close to a flame.

by CourierNinetyTwo



Series: Samson and Delilah [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 19:30:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1481344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rescues don't only happen in fairytales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close to a flame.

Everything smelled like ash.

Blake had streaks of it across her skin, a mask of black and grey where it had smeared over her brow. The mansion had been burning when they got there, lured by a pouch of red Dust, volatile and tied shut with familiar strands of long blonde hair. Weiss had tracked down the shipment it was stolen from and they’d spent the next three days interrogating Roman’s mooks and wayward White Fang until someone spat out the name Cinder Fall.

As much as everyone wished that mastermind lairs projected a warning beacon into the sky, it was another two days of footwork to find out where Cinder might be hiding out. If Blake had to deal with another Faunus trembling at the mention of the woman’s name, she was going to borrow a bottle of Dust from Weiss and shove it somewhere unpleasant. Her kind always had pride and purpose - even it could be misguided - but the White Fang she saw now may as well have been another species entirely.

Seeing a dark column of smoke had cut straight to her heart. Black plumes, bitter ash in the wind, all the signs of a fire being snuffed out. They had expected a lot more resistance; Ruby ran in swinging, Crescent Rose cutting a red streak through crumbling furniture and the charred husks of machine guns. Whether they had once been part of a robo-turret or in the hands of a guard, Blake didn’t take the time to stop and guess.

Yang was still here, she knew it in her gut. The fire was setting Blake’s teeth on edge, turning her heartbeat into an insistent staccato. Every doorway they rushed through was threatening to give under the weight of the upper floors, bright embers slowly eroding away the last of the mansion’s support.

A scent lingered under the burnt wood and gunpowder; blood, sickly sweet with a tinge of copper. Blake was all too familiar. She couldn’t pinpoint the source, even as Weiss and Ruby worked in sync to beat back the flames, ice smothering what couldn’t be contained. She jumped from shadow to shadow, trying to keep her weight off the weakened floor and creaking stairs.

"It’s getting further away." Blake growled in frustration.

"What is?" Ruby asked, grimacing when a split appeared in a nearby beam.

"I can sm-…sense her." Blake glanced upward. There was only the attic left. "But it’s been getting harder to on every floor."

"Then maybe we need to go down." Weiss said.

"We were already-" She hesitated. It was so simple, matter-of-fact. "A basement."

Blake was running as soon as she finished the thought, heedless of the shouting of her name from behind. She resisted the urge to cut right through the floor, knowing how close the mansion was to collapsing completely.

Down, down, down.

There was a hollow sound when her heels hit wood again. Blake looked around for a door, any way that would lead to the basement. Everything was cast in black, red, and gold, destroyed furnishings blending in with the fire. She sliced through a pair of velvet curtains, praying they were concealing something. There was nothing but a broken window, but the scent of blood was almost choking her.

Blake took a deep breath. If she had to cut back through the house after it fell on top of her, she damn well would. Gambol Shroud wasn’t really meant to be an axe, but the blade turned the polished planks to splinters as she hacked around her feet, legs tensed for the fall to come. A sharp crack was the final warning before she swung Gambol once more.

It was a twelve foot drop. She had fallen from much farther heights, but the impact of the wood under her feet against solid concrete sent it exploding into fragments. Blake staggered to try and catch her footing, ending up on one knee.

There was no fire down here, but every wall was scorched. The blood she smelled was in a dark trail, leading towards a tall brass frame. A few strands of blonde hair were in the last congealed drops, stopping right near the edge of a familiar brown boot.

"Yang." Blake scrambled to her feet, moving to the other side of the frame.

Her jaw dropped. She was used to a golden profusion of hair being the first thing she noticed about Yang. It bounced around the other girl’s shoulders like a living thing, the tips tickling across her skin when Yang straddled her hips with a bright smile. Blonde locks surrounded her like a curtain each time they kissed, a private sanctum protecting them both from prying eyes.

It was gone.  _Shorn_  was the only word that came to mind at the sight of the jagged edges curling towards Yang’s chin. That left the other girl’s throat bare, revealing lines of purple bruises, like the constantly shifting grip of someone’s hand. There were other marks too, abrasions and reddened scrapes, but the blood that had haunted her through the fire was dried like tears down either side of Yang’s face. Blue and black swelled both eyelids shut.

The rise of the other girl’s chest startled her from the initial shock. Breathing. Yang was still breathing.

"Yang. Wake up." Blake whispered the words like a prayer as she tried to find the clasp, the button, whatever contraption was keeping the tight bands of metal around the other girl’s body together.

A soft grunt left Yang’s throat and it might as well have been a symphony to Blake’s ears. She finally found the switch, hearing a click as the locks popped open one by one. Without the support of the cage, Yang started to slump, and she immediately wrapped her arms around the broad shoulders she knew so well. Blake sunk slowly to the floor, bearing the other girl’s weight.

When they were both kneeling, she closed her eyes and listened to the shallow rhythm of Yang’s breath. It was real. A hand grasped weakly at her back, trying to find purchase. 

"…’s really you." Yang’s voice was raw, barely above a whisper.

Blake felt the sudden rise of tears, threatening to shatter her composure. “It’s really me, Yang.”

"Did you get her?"

Blake’s brow knit. “Cinder?”

The arm around her tightened. “Yeah.”

"Everyone was gone by the time we got here." Blake glanced up at the hole she’d cut through the floor. "Actually, the mansion’s kind of on fire."

She felt the surge of energy as Yang tried to stand, but the other girl’s legs trembled dangerously before buckling. Blake resisted the urge to tighten her embrace; she wasn’t sure if anything had been broken. Ruby and Weiss’ voices pricked her ears, but they were still too far for her to make out the words.

"I can’t…" Yang buried into her shoulder, halfway concealed by dark curls. "I don’t think I can see."

Blake swallowed past the rise in her gorge. Seeing the state of Yang’s face had put that fear in her heart, although she hoped that if she hadn’t voiced it, had held the other girl a little while longer, perhaps it would stop being true. A fairytale lie, meant for heroes who saved princesses. She didn’t qualify for either of those.

"Do you want to try?" She asked softly.

There was a long pause, Yang’s palm laying like a brand against her back. When the clatter of footsteps and voices got louder, it seemed to steel the other girl’s resolve, and Blake felt a deliberate nod.

When their embrace finally broke, she cupped Yang’s face as carefully as she could, mindful of any bruises. There was a brief flicker of both eyelids, but she saw the instinctive grimace that followed. Blake couldn’t imagine how much it had to hurt.

"This isn’t goin’ quite as good as I planned." Yang’s jaw tensed.

"I can…" Blake bit her tongue. "I can try and help."

Yang nodded slowly. “Just tell me how bad it is.”

There was no way to keep from making the pain worse. As gently as she touched the bruises, everything was still a swollen mess. Yang bore through it with grit teeth, but Blake couldn’t help the choked sound she made when the extent of the damage was made clear. She didn’t know enough about medicine to be sure it could be treated or not, but there was no recognition in Yang’s expression when she lowered her hands the other girl’s shoulders, gripping them a bit tighter than she meant to.

"Nothing?" Blake asked, careful to keep her tone neutral.

"It hurt." Yang’s smile was a reflex, she knew, but seeing it made the ache in her heart ease just a little. "I was going to tell you that you looked great."

"We’re going to get you out of here and back to Beacon, okay?"  Blake forced herself to match the smile, even if the other girl couldn’t see. "You’ll get fixed up."

"Ruby’s alright?" Yang asked. "You and Weiss and…everyone?"

"We’re fine." Blake leaned forward, her mouth brushing Yang’s. The other girl’s lips were chapped and cracked, but when Yang tilted her head up into the kiss, Blake’s heart soared. It was the best kiss she’d ever had. "We’re all fine."

She felt Yang stiffen when Ruby and Weiss dropped down into the basement, the latter’s clothes turned nearly black with ash. Blake instinctively stroked the other girl’s hair, startling as it was to feel Yang’s scalp beneath her fingers. 

"Yang!" Crescent Rose immediately collapsed in Ruby’s hands.

"Ruby, wait." Blake held up her hand. "Wait just a second."

She sat back on her heels, ensuring that one of Yang’s hands stayed against her shoulder to maintain a connection. Reaching up to her head, Blake tugged at the ribbon there until it slipped free. Yang frowned in confusion at the first touch of silk, but she let out a soothing sound until the ribbon was bound completely around the other girl’s head. There was no getting around the blood, but it concealed the rest of the damage, at least.

"Blake—" Yang began.

"It’s fine." Blake smiled. "You don’t have any broken ribs, do you? I’m pretty sure your sister’s about to hug you hard enough for a few."

There was a rasp, close to a laugh. “I’m good.” 

As hard as it was to move away, she knew Ruby hadn’t slept in days worrying about Yang. The younger girl’s cloak surrounded her sister like a shield once the distance was closed between them, and Blake reluctantly got to her feet. Weiss’ eyes were focused on the hole in the ceiling, foot tapping against the floor. As much as they had their differences, Blake was pretty sure it was more of a tense twitch than actual impatience.

"How long do we have left?" She asked.

Weiss went taut as a bowstring. “Do I happen to look like a firefighter to you?”

"You weren’t doing too bad a job upstairs a few minutes ago." Blake said.

"You-" Weiss hesitated. "You meant that."

Blake looked back at Yang and Ruby. The younger girl was helping Yang get to her feet with a bit more success than the first attempt. With one hand clamped on Ruby’s shoulder, she heard Yang ask, “Did I ever tell you I was thinking of changing to a mohawk? I’d rock it, right?”

"Yeah." Blake frowned. She couldn’t hear the faint crackle of fire anymore. "I meant it."

—-

A week in the hospital hadn’t improved the news. Blake heard the technical terms tossed around, the various attempts at treatment from Dust to essences stripped from Grimm and refined, but at the end of all of it, Yang still couldn’t see. The bruises faded with each passing day and Cinder’s trail got colder.

When Yang was finally allowed visitors, Blake waited for Ruby and Weiss to go in first, killing time by reading over a history of fire’s association with Dust. She hadn’t been able to figure out why Cinder would set the mansion ablaze and run. There were a lot easier ways to kill Yang, and as a trap, it had been a pretty poor one, unless Cinder was counting on the building collapsing on them at just the right time.

"Hey, Blake."

She looked up. Ruby had her head sticking out of Yang’s room, smile as wide as always.

"I think Yang wants to see you. She’s making the bed bounce and Weiss is starting to get creeped out."

Blake closed her book and stood up, shaking her head. Ruby tugged on her sleeve as she passed, promising to catch her back at the dorms later. She appreciated the privacy, even if hospitals made her ears twitch somewhat. Faunus tended to be asked a lot of questions whenever they came in with injuries.

Yang was indeed making the bed bounce, but it seemed to be from an overabundance of energy more than anything else. Having to keep still for ten minutes wasn’t Yang’s style, much less a week. Blake made her footsteps heavy so her approach wouldn’t be a surprise.

"That you, Blake?"

She sat down on the edge of the bed, resting one hand against Yang’s legs that were well and tangled in the sheets. “It might be.”

Her ribbon had long since been replaced by gauze, and then a dark eye shield. One of the doctors had mentioned it would be a few more weeks before that would be gone too and then Yang had to learn to…adjust. That was the polite term for it.

Yang’s hair had been cleaned up too, although Blake still wasn’t quite sure how Weiss had convinced the hospital administration to allow a stylist in. It was still shockingly short, but the ends were even, and if rumors were to be believed, Yang had the full intention of trying out a mohawk. She couldn’t quite picture it, but if it made the other girl happy, Blake would wield the hairspray and gel herself.

"Nice perfume, mysterious dialogue. If there’s two of you with cute ears, I’m going to be in trouble." Yang’s grin was contagious.

There was only a thin curtain between the bed and the door, but Blake found it difficult to be too concerned. If a nurse wanted to chastise her, she would deal with it later. Curling up against Yang was a privilege she’d been denied for too long already.

When Yang’s arm came out from under the sheet to embrace her, Blake saw her ribbon was wrapped around the other girl’s wrist. The binding was messy, the knot tied awkwardly thrice over, but she knew Yang had done it one-handed and blind. Blake leaned over to kiss scarred knuckles and all of the spaces between the silk, a soft sound leaving her lips when Yang nuzzled her hair.

"Want to hear something cool?"

Warm breath against the velvet edge of her ears made her shiver, but Blake let out an agreeable hum.

"Goodwitch and Ozpin called. They said there are Aura techniques to deal with sort of thing if it doesn’t heal. I wouldn’t be able to see…but I could…sense my surroundings. Guess I’m not the first huntress to be out a couple eyes, huh?"

A stranger might have taken the cheerfulness at face value; Blake knew better. Yang was too quick to smile and refused to let silence set in. She was sure Weiss saw through it and Ruby was still overwhelmed by the fact that her sister was okay, but Blake had never been good at letting things lie.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

Yang’s leg, which had been practically twitching underneath the sheet this entire time, stilled. Blake tilted her head up just enough to see the other girl’s face, brow furrowed against the line of the dark eye-shield.

"You know the stuff I told the cops. That she sent a fake message to my scroll and I went out to the forest." Yang shifted a little, unbound hand searching until it made contact with her hair, offering a gentle stroke. "You saw the basement."

Blake stayed quiet, her palm pressing flush with Yang’s. She slowly worked her fingertips beneath the ribbon until their hands were entirely entwined, offering a soft squeeze.

"She asked a bunch of weird questions. Called them riddles, even though it was just whatever she wanted to ask, I think." Yang shrugged. "First one was why she’d chosen me instead of someone else on the team."

Blake frowned. “She asked you that?”

"Yeah. Told me I was great bait." Yang hesitated. "She said if I didn’t have an answer next time she had a question, she’d…take her pound of flesh." 

"So that was when she-" Blake bit her lip.

"No, not right away. I answered pretty much everything, even if it was weird. Like if I’d ever burned a building down or hurt someone with my Aura. Then…" 

Yang turned her head away. It was a reflexive gesture, when the other girl couldn’t see her expression, but the shame rolled off rigid shoulders in waves.

"Cinder asked me what it would take to betray my team. I ignored her at first, right, because the answer is nothing. But she just stood there looking at me and smiling. So I asked her if it was an offer." Yang let out a hiss of disgust. "It was the first time she didn’t choke me for asking a question and I knew I’d made her happy. It was awful."

Blake squeezed Yang’s hand even tighter. “You know she’ll be found. She’ll pay for hurting you.”

"I know." The smile that followed was faint, but a little more real. "The worst thing was is that I thought about it. I thought maybe if I could convince her I was on her side, I’d be able to ambush her when you guys showed up."

"There’s nothing wrong with that, Yang. It’s smart." Blake said.

"But I remembered when you were telling me about the White Fang. What they used to be like before they lost their way. Is that how it starts, thinking you’re doing the right thing and then when you’re not paying attention, you get lost?"

There was more underneath all this. “What else did she tell you?”

"She talked about my potential. How much I could do with the right push. I think it was the only reason she didn’t kill me when…" Yang let out a slow breath, squeezing her hand back. "I told her nothing would ever make me betray the team. Not Ruby, not you, not Weiss. Hell, no one from Beacon."

"What happened next?" Blake asked.

"She cut my hair first. It’s always been a thing that set me on edge, I don’t know why or how she even knew. I thought it was over with when she asked if I liked to change my answer. I was so angry, I spit in her face. Then everything hurt."

Blake turned just enough to pull Yang into a full embrace. The other girl didn’t resist, burying her face into Blake’s chest and simply breathing for a while. She wasn’t like Yang, easily riding the crest of emotion from anger to joy, every expression pure and sincere. Rage built in Blake slowly, setting in its roots over time until it simply had to burst forth. They were there now, worming their way into her heart. That someone could hurt Yang and get away with it made her burn.

She blinked, feeling an idea just on the tip of her tongue. “What did she do after that, Yang?”

"She left." The words were muffled into Blake’s shirt. "I might have passed out for a bit, but the next person that was there was you."

"Did Cinder say anything to you before she left?"

Yang shook her head. “Nothing. It was…sudden. I think I heard her scroll get a message, but I couldn’t see anything.”

"I kept asking myself why she would set the house on fire and draw attention to herself. Everything was a mess in there, dropped weapons and unlocked doors." Blake’s mouth quirked into a smile. "I think you set the fire, Yang. I think you burned her entire place down."

"Really?" She felt Yang shift, unable to keep entirely still. "I mean, I couldn’t have. Cinder told me the basement was fireproof."

"The basement was made of concrete and metal, but the walls were all scorched. If your Aura reached out far enough after she hurt you, I bet it would do the trick."

Yang’s laugh rumbled against her chest like a purr. “Some potential, huh? I smoked her out.”

"You’re safe now." Blake said softly. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah." Calloused fingers squeezed hers again. "I just hope that isn’t what she wanted. Me to go all hellfire and brimstone."

Blake tensed at the thought, but rather than argue or protest, she reached to tilt Yang’s head up, pulling the other girl into a firm kiss. It wasn’t like the grateful-you’re-alive kiss like in the basement, simple reaffirming contact. There was need behind it, the inescapable instinct to prove that to Yang that she still wanted her, wanted this. Blake had always waited too long, said she cared a moment too late.

Yang’s response was immediate, hungry for more. It took a moment for them to untangle their hands, but the moment they were freed, Blake felt fingers at the edge of her shirt seeking upward and underneath. One roughened palm cupped her breast and she gasped, but the moment the sound left her lips, the other girl went still.

"We don’t have to do this…here—I mean—" Yang fumbled briefly for the words. "Know how you feel about getting walked in on and I can’t even see if—."

"I want to if you want to." Blake interrupted. "I really want to."

Yang’s smile made her blood quicken. Their next kiss lasted until they had to break apart to breathe, all thought of protest abandoned.


End file.
